The invention generally relates to steaming apparatus for treating webs of material, e.g., fabric webs, and more particularly to a steamer having a web cleaning device.
Most steamers comprise rows of several, mutually parallel, guide rollers. For example, in a horizontal steamer a row of guide rollers is arranged in a horizontal plane, while in a loop steamer, an upper row of rollers is arranged in a horizontal plane with an additional row of rollers arranged in a horizontal plane therebelow. The invention, however, is not limited to steamers in which the guide rollers of a given row all lie in a horizontal plane. Rather, the term "row" as used herein designates any sequence or series of mutually parallel, guide rollers that lie at substantially the same level.
Known steamers generally have cleaning means in the form of spray nozzles that are mounted on the side walls of the steamer to prevent dripping onto the web. The nozzles are directed against the guide rollers for cleaning them by spraying. Residues of dye and textile additives remaining on the guide rollers can be removed in this manner as long as the residues are still moist. After drying has taken place, removal is possible only with the use of aggressive chemicals, which are different for removal of various types of dyes and textile aids.
Other types of impurities may become deposited on the guide rollers of a steamer, such as waterglass compounds and fuzz. These types of impurities can not be removed by a side-mounted spray nozzle. Even after short running times, the rollers must be treated with brushes or scrapers. For this reason, prompt cleaning in steamers is still predominantly manual work today.
The invention is directed to the problem of providing a steamer in which web cleaning takes place faster and more effectively than in the steamers heretofore known in the prior art.